"That time of year thou mayst in me behold"

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth from the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed whereon it must expire,

Consumed by that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

 

The sonnet belongs to the collection of 154 sonnets of Shakespeare.  It follows the Elizabethan model: it is arranged into three quatrains of alternated rhyme and a rhyming couplet.

 

The sonnet deals with the old age of the speaking voice, that is expressed in the three quatrains through three metaphors.

 

In the first quatrain the speaking voice compares his old age with the Autumn. The typical signs of old age are associated to the image of trembling yellow leaves upon austere branches.  

The sonneteer chooses the metaphor of autumnal leaves in order to communicate the precariousness of life when you are old.  

The last line of the first quatrain reminds to the youth of the speaking voice, when “the sweet birds sang”. A sense of nostalgia transpires from the adjective “sweet” that reveals the pleasure of the memory of his youth. In addition, the image of singing births reminds to Spring, that is the metaphorical image of youth.

Spring and sweetness contrasts Autumn and cold, underlining the opposition between youth and old age.

 

 In the second quatrains the sonneteer employs the metaphor of sunset. The speaking voice compares the decline of his life with the decline of the sun.  

The twilight is that phase of sunset between day and night, light and dark, that metaphorically stand for life and death. The twilight irreversibly precedes the ‘dark night’ and expresses the irreparable approach of the end of life.

The sonneteer chooses the metaphor of sunset since it allows reader to reflect about the circle of life. While sun can raise again the day after, human life has only one beginning and one end: the circular movement of the sun stands opposite to the linear course of human life.

 

The last metaphor of the old age is communicated in the third quatrain. The sonneteer compares it with a languishing fire, that is perishing on the ashes of its youth. The same fire that was ardent and brilliant in youth, it is nearly extinguished in the old age.

 

So the function of the three quatrains is to communicate the sufferance of the speaking vice, because of the nostalgia for youth, the melancholy of the old age, the consciousness of the approach of death.

But, in conformity with the model of sonnet, the final rhyming couplet expresses a possible solution, that is the volta, the tournament.

 

In the final couplet the reader can understand that the speaking voice is talking to the loved woman: ‘which makes thy love more strong’.

The rhyming couplet offers a possible solution to the problem expressed in the quatrains. Indeed, even though death is coming, the relation of love between the speaking voice and the imagined woman won’t perish. The consciousness that life is coming to the end and the awareness of a forthcoming separation will strengthen love, making more sweet and pleasant the few last days of life.